Posts tagged "free speech"

The U.S. State Department has voiced public support for Charlie Hebdo’s past and future satirical magazine covers, citing the importance of free speech. [RawStory] French comedian Dieudonné has been arrested for Facebook comments that were perceived to support Charlie Hebdo gunman Amedy Coulibaly, in what some critics see as a censorial move that shine…

Read this interview with India’s first transgender mayor, Madhu Bai Kinnar. [Wall Street Journal] The NFL’s first openly gay player, Michael Sam, is engaged! All together now: Awwwwwww. [Refinery29] The University of Oregon is being sued for recruiting a basketball player previously accused of sexual assault. [BuzzFeed]…

One suspect, 18-year-old Mourad Hamyd, has been taken into custody for the attack on the headquarters of satirical comedy magazine Charlie Hebdo which left 12 people dead on Wednesday. Two other suspects, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, have yet to be found by French police.

If there is one thing cats hate, it's water. If there's two things cats hate, it's water and Internet censorship. A group called The Pussycat Riot (not affiliated with the band) is using famous Internet cats to draw attention to world leaders who suppress their peoples' access to information online. It's a project…

Today, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of anti-abortion protesters in a case regarding the First Amendment as it pertains to buffer zones around abortion clinics. The state of Massachusetts had a 2007 law that forbids anti-abortion protesters from entering a 35-foot radius around the entrances of clinics, marked in yellow around the…

This week, Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed a law cracking down on so-called "revenge porn," classifying it as a sex offense. "Revenge porn" consists of sexual photos or videos which are posted online without the person's consent. Generally speaking, ex-boyfriends or jilted partners post intimate images or videos of ex-girlfriends, which go…

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court is set to begin hearing arguments on the subject of abortion. But it's not reproductive rights, per se, that the Court will be hearing about: this time it's a matter of clinic safety. McCullen vs. Coakley is a lawsuit against a 2007 Massachusetts law that forbids anti-abortion protesters from entering…

It was bound to happen sooner or later: a college banned "Blurred Lines" from campus for being too rapey-sounding. The student union of University of Edinburgh banned the Robin Thicke song as part of a policy called "End Rape Culture & Lad Banter On Campus," which is seeking to make the campus safer…

In 2010, high school teacher Johnson McDowell wore a purple shirt to school in solidarity with bullied LGBT youth, and screened a video about someone that had committed suicide after being bullied for his sexual orientation. At the end of the video, his student, Daniel Glawacki, stated that he could not accept gay people because…

"Crisis pregnancy centers" in Baltimore are having their First Amendment rights violated by being required to post notices that state they do not offer abortion referrals or birth control, an appeals court has ruled. "CPCs" are primarily run by anti-abortion activists, located near abortion clinics, and use trickery to dissuade women from terminating their pregnancies.

Four women, who were between the ages of 13 and 17 when they were filmed flashing their breasts by "Girls Gone Wild" goons, have asked to pursue their lawsuit without being named. The women, who are now in their 20s, said when they appeared in the "Girls Gone Wild" videos as teens in Panama…

An Illinois teenage girl was sentenced to 48 hours in jail for wearing a T-shirt into court that read: "I own the p**sy, so I make the rules." [Dumb As A Blog] The world will have to wait to read Madonna's inner-most thoughts because a multi-million dollar auction of her journals ha…

A California 7th grader is fighting for her right to…wear a T-shirt. Anna Amador is representing her daughter in the lawsuit against McSwain Elementary School after her daughter was forced to take off her pro-life T-shirt back in April 2008. Celebrating “National Pro-Life T-shirt Day”—which I didn’t even know existed—the girl sported a graphic (pun!)…

In a recent court decision, South Dakota will enforce a law that forces doctors into guilt-tripping their patients before performing an abortion. As if making the decision isn’t hard enough, now the government requires doctors to read an statement to women that says an abortion will “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living…

Simply Irresistible

Taking a page out of those girls you went to high school with who can't stop smugly posting every detail of their perfect lives on Facebook, Lady Gaga shaded America's youngest grandma Taylor Swift just perfectly on Twitter yesterday. It all started when Jaime King's unborn child's godmother tweeted about Gaga, using the preferred…

Oh look, it's hottest DILF alive, Ryan Gosling, making a rare appearance in public grabbing lunch in LA today. And what's that I see? In addition to his perfectly worn T-shirt (that collar is stretched just so), hoodie and leather jacket, the Gos is rocking a few faint letters on his knuckles, spelling out the…